[upbeat music] - The woods are my home.

[footsteps crunching] I feel more myself in the woods than anywhere else.

This particular cove, Shelton Laurel, in Madison County, Western North Carolina, is a place where ballad singers settled many generations ago, it's a place that is rich in musical heritage and folksong.

[footsteps crunching] We grew everything we ate.

We went to town twice a year.

We needed nothing else.

Okay, ramp season, my favorite time of the year.

They're green, they're pungent, they're astringent, they're spicy, they're hot, they're wild.

Mm, wow, mm.

Can't get any better than that.

I feel selfish enjoying all of this bounty on my own, so I enjoy sharing that.

[upbeat music] The Appalachian Culinary Experience takes place on this mountainside halfway up the Sugarloaf at about 3,000 feet.

It is a combination of ingredients, cooking, entertaining, savoring moments around the table.

- [Gay] Susi has special knowledge.

- [Susi] From four different heirloom varietals of apples, they all come from the same.

- She's written several books and she's a French chef.

If you really wanna experience Appalachia, I can't think of any better way to do it than with Susi.

[upbeat music] - [Michael] Walking in the mountains, drinking water from a fresh spring, learning from Susi, meeting her parents, It's a complete joy.

- All of the walks are adaptable, I can adjust the path that we might take.

Morels need you to believe in them in order to find them.

Look at that, there you are, okay.

You can take a sniff, it is really, really delicate and lovely at the same time.

We're going to start with a tomato tart with thyme and [speaking in foreign language] and of course, ramps, because we have ramps at our fingertips.

Aren't we lucky?

Press rather than push, because you don't wanna tear the dough.

- [Katie] The food experience, it's sensory.

It is the noises, it's the smells, it's the movements.

- All right.

- [Katie] All of it is combined in such a delightful way.

- To wonderful weekends with friends, wandering the fields and the hollers, which is my very favorite thing to do.

And to everybody being willing to try branch lettuce and sochan and ramps and morels.

[attendees laughing] And all the wonderful things that grace our table tonight.

Yeah, it's in North Carolina.

- I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy.

Susi has expanded my palate.

[attendee faintly speaking] - When you have a steak, you've had these things before, but then adding these components, these elements that are unique to the place where you are just deepens that experience, it makes that stake so much better in so many ways.

And having watched it be prepared, having your hands in it yourself, being a part of that process, all of it is so incredible to the experience.

[stand mixer whirring] [attendees faintly speaking] - The Appalachian Culinary Experience is hosted the last Saturday of each month from March until October.

For more information, visit appalachianculinary.com, or call 828-301-2792.